By Dr. Randy Nelson
Professor Emeritus of Education
Contributing Columnist
Dr. Randy Nelson has been a professional educator for 47 years. Since 2018 he has worked closely with Liberian teachers, university students, professors, and administrators as an educator and consultant. If you have questions pertaining to education, please email them to educationquestions@yahoo.com. All questions cannot be published.
A reader asks: ”Everyone knows that the education sector has very serious challenges. What do you think the government of Liberia, through the Ministry of Education, needs to focus on to turn the corner? What should be the absolute top priority?”
Response: After working with the education sector across the spectrum for several years, I am convinced that the “absolute top priority” should be insisting that all teacher education programs graduate professional educators of the highest quality. Graduates must be thoroughly educated in their respective content areas, and they must likewise be skilled in designing and delivering powerful lessons. They must be prepared to engage students with rich academic content, using methods that increase critical thinking skills and retention.
Knowing content and delivery methods, however, is not enough. Educators at all levels must understand how to apply concepts from educational psychology. Teacher training programs must teach developing educators how to motivate and encourage students of various ages and levels, how to reduce unwanted behaviors, and how to shape the learning environment for increased productivity.
Teacher education programs must also require graduates to have strong English usage skills. The graduates’ future students will need to see and hear correct English every day in every classroom to develop high language proficiency. Students who use correct English will have an advantage everywhere they go and in everything they do for the rest of their lives.
Teacher education programs must graduate only those students who have met high standards. In so doing, we will eventually see significant changes in every school and stronger graduates who can improve Liberia’s quality of life.
A reader asks: “I hear one big excuse from schools about the lack of adequate funding and governmental subsidies. They cite that as a reason for packing classes. Because classes are packed, they don’t teach certain courses thoroughly. What are your thoughts about this problem?”
Response: Each year when I conduct pedagogy workshops, I hear complaints from teachers about overcrowded classrooms. At times, teachers have told me about having 80-90 students in one room. Their comments are nearly always accompanied by frustration and the sense that no one is really paying attention to their concerns.
I have visited a few Liberian classrooms that were packed wall to wall. In one of those rooms, I counted 83 students. Because the teacher was unable to monitor behaviors occurring in the middle and rear sections, a few students appeared to be sleeping, some were chatting, and several were scrolling on cell phones. The overcrowded room prevented the teacher from circulating among the students to see what was occurring. As the minutes ticked by, the noise level continued to rise, making teaching and learning increasingly difficult.
Such management problems will frequently occur in overcrowded classrooms. Too many people in one physical space leads to increases in student aggression and anxiety. The students’ needs for belonging, competence, self-esteem, and personal dignity are frequently unmet. Emotional safety often suffers, leaving students with emotional needs to fend for themselves. Some students become more combative; others withdraw from their peers. As negative human reactions increase, learning decreases.
Out of necessity, instruction is often adjusted to help the teacher cope with a high number of students. The teacher spends more time managing behaviors than teaching. At the same time, the teacher is expected to grade, for example, 80 or more papers for each section night after night. The time required to do so is daunting and unreasonable, and teaching becomes exhausting. When exhaustion is combined with management problems and low pay, teachers often experience futility and burnout. Educational quality suffers.
No administrator or teacher should be expected to put institutional survival ahead of educational quality. Sadly, that is happening when overcrowded classrooms become the revenue source that counteracts insufficient funding.
I do not have easy solutions to this problem, but I can remind everyone that funding decisions are a matter of choice and priorities. Adequate funding of education must be a high priority for the sake of children and their future productivity. Education is power, and every Liberian child indeed deserves empowerment.